Australia is on bushfire alert after the Bureau of Meteorology confirmed the onset of an El Nino weather pattern, raising the chances of a blistering hot and dry summer.
It follows a period of global weather records being broken and a series of natural disasters which has seen killer heatwaves and devastating floods in the northern hemisphere.
El Nino is the opposite of La Niña, and causes hot, dry weather which can increase the risk of bushfires.
Australia is already suffering several bushfires on the east coast with homes evacuated in Queensland yesterday and a huge fire sweeping through countryside close to Cessnock in NSW.
Area around Coles Bay in Tasmania were also evacuated on Tuesday after a bushfire there spread out of control and threatened local homes.
Weathermen are also warning of ‘catastrophic’ fire danger on the NSW south coast as high temperatures combine with unexpectedly high winds.
On Tuesday, the Bureau of Meteorology formally declared an El Nino weather event for Australia, two months after the World Meteorological Organisation announced a global El Nino was underway.
More to come
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
